Sikkid Shiva

It was a hot day even in October in the desert city of Jaisalmer, and we were visiting the fort. After we climbed up high, we were huffing and puffing and we saw a guy selling tender coconuts and we thought we will have one each. 

The unique thing about this vendor was he had segregated his set of tender coconuts into two main sections. One section was for those tender coconuts which he would pick and open it up for us and the other section was for customers to choose and pick and he would open it up for us. The former was pricier than the latter. 

We were three of us, so we took two from his choice and I chose the one from the latter section. As it happened, when he cut out mine we found out that it was empty. Absolutely empty - no water inside at all. Which was the first time in my life, have never seen an empty tender coconut, so had never expected it either. Still, he said we have to pay for it because we chose it and that meant we had committed for that coconut. 

This nonplussed us because we were not sure if he was cheating his customers by simply keeping this second set with all empty tender coconuts just to make money out of it. So we started arguing and asking him to be fair and just that if there is no water, he should not ask us to pay anything. But his argument was that if we had gone with the pricier lot, it was his commitment to provide a good tender coconut and since the second lot was for customers to choose and pick, it was customer's destiny - so to speak. You either got a good one or a rotten one or an empty one depended totally on customer's fate, and that's why he charged less for it. 

It was a very interesting situation to be in, where we were not sure if we were being conned or if it was a fair game since we are not the experts in tender coconut business but we kept on arguing and finally he relented and gave one more which was not too bad. But this incident made me think: 

We get what we choose, and that's our destiny. If we are lucky, we get a good one. If not, hard luck. In Kannada, as they say, "Sikkid Shiva." Just bow and accept.